Draws have been made for the World Cup in most sections: there will be all-against-all qualifiers in South America, and Oceania used the Pacific Games as a qualifying tournament for its final round.
CONCACAF draw
FARCE vs (Dominica vs Barbados) Guatemala vs (Turks and Caicos Islands vs St. Lucia) Trinidad and Tobago vs (Bermuda vs Cayman Islands) (Aruba vs Antigua and Barbuda) vs Cuba (Belize vs St. Kitts and Nevis) vs Mexico Jamaica vs (Bahamas vs British Virgin Islands) Honduras vs (Dominican Rep. vs Puerto Rico) Canada vs St. Vincent/Grenadine (US Virgin Islands vs Grenada) vs Costa Rica (Suriname vs Montserrat) vs Guyana Panama vs (El Salvador vs Anguilla) Haiti vs (Nicaragua vs Netherland Antilles)
Winners of each fixture enter a group of 4 who will play a round-robin next year; top two progress to the last six, which plays in 2009. Because seeding was done by performance at the last WC, the middle section contains four of the top six sides in the FIFA rankings; only the FARCE and Costa Rica have escaped. We do look forward to the colonials having to play against Cuba, because we're nasty like that.
Africa draw
Group 1: Cameroon, Cape Verde Islands, Tanzania, Mauritius Group 2: Guinea, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Kenya Group 3: Angola, Benin, Uganda, Niger Group 4: Nigeria, South Africa, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone Group 5: Ghana, Libya, Gabon, Lesotho Group 6: Senegal, Algeria, Liberia, Gambia Group 7: Cote d'Ivoire, Mozambique, Botswana, Madagascar Group 8: Morocco, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Mauritania Group 9: Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Seychelles Group 10: Mali, Congo, Sudan, Chad Group 11: Togo, Zambia, Eritrea, Swaziland Group 12: Egypt, Congo DR, Malawi, Djibouti
Round-robin in 2008; the group winners and eight best runners-up will be re-drawn into five groups of four. Winners of each group - excluding matches against South Africa in their group - will make the World Cup. Next two in each group, plus hosts Angloa, will make the 2010 Cup of Nations. A tricky draw for South Africa, in particular.
Asia draw
Group 1: Iraq, Qatar, Red China, Australia Group 2: Oman, Thailand, Bahrain, Japan Group 3: North Korea, Jordan, Turkmenistan, South Korea Group 4: Lebanon, Singapore, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia Group 5: Syria, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iran
These groups will play out next year; top two progress to a further draw into two groups of five, they play a tight schedule in 2009. Top two in each group qualifies automatically; winner of a play off between the thirds will play New Zealand the winner of Oceania. At this stage, group 1 looks very difficult, and group 5 could also be tight.
Europe
Group 1 Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Albania, Malta Group 2 Greece, Israel, Switzerland, Moldova, Latvia, Luxembourg Group 3 Czechia, Poland, Northern Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia, San Marino Group 4 Germany, Russia, Finland, Wales, Azerbaijan, Liechtenstein Group 5 Spain, Turkey, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Armenia, Estonia Group 6 Croatia, England, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Andorra Group 7 France, Romania, Serbia, Lithuania, Austria, Faroe Islands Group 8 Italy, Bulgaria, Republic of Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia, Montenegro Group 9 Netherlands, Scotland, Norway, Macedonia, Iceland
Group winners progress to the finals, eight best runners-up (discarding results against 6th in the group) play off for the last places.
Some analysis? 1 looks tight, 2 has little depth and will provide cannon-fodder for some lucky side in the play-off; it's a dream draw for Switzerland and Latvia. 3 is so obvious they may as well just have Czechia and Poland play head-to-head in October 2009 and be done with it. 4 has three maddeningly inconsistent sides, the least inconsistent will finish behind Germany; and it redresses the injustice of promoting Azerbaijan above Liechtenstein because no-one at FIFA could quite belive the Liechts were pot 5 material. 5 looks like a good scrap, but for third. 6 contains three sides who believe they can make the quarter-finals of the whole contest, and three make-weights. 7 could be the group to send only one side: all three makeweights are capable of pulling off upsets (remember qualifying for Euro 92?), and the top brass will take points off each other. Difficult for the defending champions. 8 is about as easy a group as Italy could have hoped for. 9 also has strength in depth; it's not so long since we were seriously discussing Iceland's chances of qualification.
The upset-o-meter
47 BOLTON WANDERERS -v- Manchester Buccaneers 1:0 38 BARNSLEY -v- Watford 3:2 37 CAEN -v- Bordeaux 5:0 35 Seville FC -v- MALLORCA 1:2 32 NURNBERG -v- Bor. Dortmund 2:0 31 AUXERRE -v- Le Mans 3:0 22 LARISSA -v- Panathanaikos 2:2 19 GRETNA - Hearts 1:1 18 Villarreal -v- ALMERIA 1:1 17 REAL MURCIA -v- Real Madrid 1:1 15 FULHAM -v- Blackburn Rovers 2:2
Bolton pull off a remarkable victory, just when the side was staring relegation in the face. Barnsley knock off the Division II leaders, and we note Caen's large margin of victory. That's a win!
Division II
CHA 865 84.1 54 0.64 WAT 864 86.9 -41 -0.47 WBA 841 82.8 55 0.66 WLV 799 82.5 17 0.21 PLY 772 82.2 4 0.05 STK 770 83.6 -35 -0.42 HUL 767 82.0 51 0.62 IPS 767 84.5 3 0.04 BRC 763 90.9 -28 -0.31 SFU 763 82.0 39 0.48 LEI 758 82.9 -12 -0.14 SOT 754 82.9 -23 -0.28 BAN 750 83.7 5 0.06 SFW 734 82.9 52 0.63 BNL 727 82.9 0 0.00 CDF 725 81.1 11 0.14 CPL 718 83.3 0 0.00 CCR 706 83.9 -50 -0.60 QPR 702 85.3 63 0.74 COV 698 82.3 -15 -0.18 PNE 685 83.4 -25 -0.30 SCU 668 92.6 -54 -0.58 BPL 637 87.6 -83 -0.95 NOR 591 85.4 2 0.02 LEE (III) 742 111.1 16 0.14 CRW (III) 684 131.2 0 0.00 LUT (III) 677 104.7 56 0.53 SEN (III) 666 104.5 -34 -0.33 BRI (III) 597 124.1 6 0.05 MIL (III) 518 134.3 -25 -0.19
Watford's second defeat in three games costs them the lead, and it goes to the side that beat them just before the international week-end. Westbrom and Wolves drew 0:0 this week-end. Hull, Sheffield W, and QPR all had a good month; Blackpool and Colchester were well below average. In Division III, Leeds has crept into the playoff places. Luton has suffered a 10-point deduction after the side went into financial administration; it's back in the relegation zone to Division IV.
